Stolen Hats and Linked Arms
by Looly
Summary: DG x Cain A touch of the hand, a brush of shoulders, upturned lips, stolen hats and linked arms. Their language is not one of words, but of body and heart . 50 sentences about DG and Wyatt Cain.


**Disclaimer:** HAHAHAHAHA--ahem. Readers, I only wish.

**Author's Note:** Done for LJ's 1sentence community for the gamma theme, but as I haven't been able to claim the pairing yet and have had this done for ages, I'm posting it everywhere else. Beware of angst, out-of-numerical-order sentences and the severe abuse of dashes, semi-colons, colons, and parentheses.

**Stolen Hats and Linked Arms**

by Looly

* * *

**#48 – Unknown**  
Both of them are tired of thinking, of analyzing, of trying to understand what is right and what is wrong as if everything were so simple as black and white; and so they dive in headfirst, eyes closed and ears shut to everyone and everything but themselves, deciding for once to forget about consequences and revel in the unknown.

**#01 – Ring**  
He shrugs and mumbles (in what she delightfully takes to be an embarrassed tone), "Just thought you deserved somethin' nice, after savin' the world and all, kiddo."

**#02 – Hero**  
Her eyes narrow and she says firmly, "If anyone should be bowing, it's _me_—_you're_ the hero around here."

**#03 – Memory**  
For one moment, they stare at their friend in gaping horror—certainly, a princess found entangled with her bodyguard wasn't exactly a favorable scene to walk in on—but they both find themselves sighing with relief when, after a moment, a confused frown replaces a look of shock and he asks them who they are.

**#06 – Hurricane**  
Her eyes follow the storm longingly, and the only thing he can do is squeeze her hand and hope that, in the morning, she will still be there.

**#07 – Wings**  
She yelps and withdraws her hand, raising the other instead to swat, as her companion shoots her an _I-told-you-so_ look; "…But I thought fairies did _nice_ things, like… granting wishes!"

**#08 – Cold**  
The overcoat is placed around her shoulders before she can protest, and though the annoyed glance that he shoots her tells her not to get snarky with him, she smiles and says, "We could always share, Mr. Cain."

**#09 – Red**  
Although her anger has faded, the handprint on his face has not (and damn it, she's always sucked with apologies).

**#10 – Drink**  
DG spends the ball trying desperately to get her hands on some O.Z. alcohol—dammit, she just wants to know what it _tastes _like—but somehow, in his own creepy Tin Man way, Cain always pops up at the last moment to maneuver the drink out of her grasp, all before disappearing back into the shadows with a smile and laugh (she really, _really_ hates him sometimes).

** #11 – Midnight**  
Neither of them can sleep (the nightmares—dead wives, cursed sisters, tin suits and evil witches—are just too much), and so they simply sit together, finding peace in silence shared with a friend.

**#12 – Temptation**  
He can't, because she is a princess and only a few annuals ahead of his son and he had a _wife_ once and—"I _want_ you," she says, before stubbornly adding, "I want _you_," and though he isn't too sure of the difference, he finds himself leaning into her anyway.

**#14 – Music**  
Raw finds that their laughter mixed together sounds rather pleasant (quiet chuckles sometimes accompanied by snorts, and a loud howl that somehow does and does not fit its owner); if only they would participate in the activity more often.

**#29 – Dance**  
Their constant dance is fluid, graceful—both are careful not to give themselves away, and should one slip up, the other is quick to catch them and pull them back into the motions, the movement so quick that onlookers are left to wonder if they had seen anything at all.

**#15 – Silk**  
She glowers at his reflection in the mirror; "Why do _you_ get to wear _your_ normal clothes? _I'm_ the princess here, I should be allowed to dress as I want!"

**#16 – Cover**  
"You aren't gonna rust, Mr. Cain," she says with a grin as she tugs him out into the rain

**#17 – Promise**  
He stares curiously at her pinky for a good thirty seconds before she rolls her eyes and loops her finger through his own.

**#18 – Dream**  
"I don't really remember my dreams anymore," she tells him, and it _is_ the truth—nowadays, it's the nightmares that never seem to go away—but she decides that revealing this would be something of a mistake.

** #22 – Journey**  
Traveling across the world for diplomatic reasons was far more troublesome than traveling across the world for stop-evil-witch-possessed-sisters-and-save-the-O.Z.-not-to-mention-the-whole-world reasons; during the latter, DG hadn't been quite so bored, nor had she had her magic to keep her entertained (and if she sent his hat spinning _one more time_…).

**#24 – Strength**  
"You're coming, Princess," he says, and it isn't a threat so much as a promise—and surely, the next moment he tosses her effortlessly over his shoulder, and proceeds to carry the kicking and screaming princess out of the room.

**#25 – Mask**  
Days are filled with painted faces, beautiful dresses and guarded words; soon she finds that she cannot remove her mask as she once could, and to him she murmurs, "I'm not myself anymore, am I?"

**#26 – Ice**  
"Oh," is all she says as realization dawns and everything freezes up, overcome by fear and embarrassment and shame and _hurt_; she's misread all of the signs, blinded by her own feelings, and has been so very, _very_ wrong.

**#23 – Fire**  
Jealousy rages within her as she watches them dance, his eyes shining in the way she wishes they would when _she_ was with him.

**#27 – Fall**  
He, Wyatt Cain, is completely and utterly and ridiculously in love with the princess ("Aw, hell.").

**#28 – Forgotten**  
He stops glitching, eventually, and begins remembering, and only then does he begin to flush every time he sees the two of them together.

**#30 – Body**  
"_Everyone_ dresses like this where I come from, Mr. Cain, and I am _not_ wearing your—" "I don't _care_ how many people dress like that, _you're putting the coat on_."

**#31 – Sacred**  
She wants to come with him, but something about visiting the grave with her at his side feels wrong in far too many ways.

**#32 – Farewells**  
She is princess-like at all the wrong moments, he thinks to himself as he ignores her outstretched hand and pulls her into his arms.

**#33 – World**  
Sometimes, they're just so far apart (she wishes she could understand if the true problem lay with the geographical or emotional aspect of it all).

**#34 – Formal**  
As a princess she must remain polite and proper, but she finds it hard to keep from grabbing and shaking the man as he bows and murmurs, "Your highness," rather than drawing her into a hug and asking, "How's it, kiddo?"

**#35 – Fever**  
"I… I think I may be running a fever, perhaps," DG says, carefully explaining away her flushed face and disheveled appearance, and hopes to any god willing to listen that her mother doesn't enter her room.

**#36 – Laugh**  
The guards watch in wonder as princess and Tin Man, arm-in-arm, begin to laugh, and find themselves quickly averting their gazes and blushing—for such a simple, innocent moment, there is something so very private and intimate about it.

**#37 – Lies**  
"I'm... happy with him," she says conversationally, and she is just as surprised as him at how easily the lie slips from her tongue.

**#38 – Forever**  
DG used to hate romance novels in which heroines wasted away whenever their heroes were not by their sides (seriously, what kind of strong feminine role models _were_ they, anyway?), and yet she finds herself falling in perfect step with the stereotype.

**#40 – Whisper**  
In a slurred voice she whispers, "I think I kinda love you," before finally succumbing to sleep; he sighs and leaves, knowing she won't remember any of this come morning.

**#41 – Wait**  
Abruptly pulling her face away from his, hands still clutching at his coat, she scolds, "I've waited a _year_ for you to do something, _anything_, but _noooo_, you just sit there and tease me or act all formal around me and y'know what, I got sick of waiting around for you, so—"—until she is silenced by another kiss, and promptly forgets what she had been saying.

**#43 – Search**  
Standing before the guests, she smiles in the way a princess is meant to smile, as her eyes roam the crowd to find her three friends…

**#44 – Hope**  
…Two are there, but one is not, and she finds it curious how, despite hundreds of people proclaiming their love, loyalty, and thanks, it takes only the absence of one man to ruin the night.

**#45 – Eclipse**  
It may be the last time they speak to each other, the last time they look at each other, the last time they hold each other, and the only time for them to do _something_, _anything_—and then it is gone, and as she races to save the world, she wonders if perhaps she will come to regret it.

**#46 – Gravity **  
They don't really pull apart, per se—rather, _he_ pulls away, graceful as always, and _she_ stumbles back, head spinning as she wonders why her feet aren't touching the ground.

**#47 – Highway**  
They've got quite a ways to go, but he'll be there, and, she thinks, maybe it won't feel like such a long way when everything's been said and done.

**#49 – Lock**  
"Princess, open the—" he doesn't even have to finish the sentence before a soft click is heard; slowly, the door jars open, and with a relieved sigh and soft smile he enters ("How does he _do_ that?").

**#19 – Candle**  
_It won't take long, I'll be back before it's melted;_ but it's been weeks, and with nothing to keep her company but a crumpled pile of wax and twenty guards to stop her from running off, she can only look out her window and wait.

**#42 – Talk**  
Normally, he would tell her off for being so un-princess-like as to plop down beside him on the ground and curl into him, but he's too damn tired to do any scolding, so he just sighs and shuts his eyes.

**#04 – Box**  
"Destroy them," she says, voice curt and cold and eyes even colder, waving them from her presence and leaving the men to wonder.

**#13 – View**  
It will never be quite enough, he knows, because _enough_ is having her for himself and himself alone… but compared to not having her at all, he is more than willing to simply watch from the background.

**#39 – Overwhelmed**  
They could never understand the feeling of one's heart being torn in two—of two very different men taking hold of one heart and pulling, pulling, _pulling_, hoping that in the end one of them would have the bigger half (it's impossible, she knows, but still she wishes love could be so simple).

**#20 – Talent**  
Crumpled paper filled with tin suits pile up on the floor, and the artist soon drops her pencil and begins to sob (it is sickening, being able to make something so evil look so beautiful).

**#21 – Silence**  
A touch of the hand, a brush of shoulders, upturned lips, stolen hats and linked arms (their language is not one of words, but of body and heart).

**#05 – Run**  
"…So you just put this little guy in there and twist that right here and then pull the lever—nonononono, _that_ lever, Mr. Cain!—and then, _voila_, there y'go, running nice and new… what're you staring for, Cain?"

**#50 – Breathe**  
_I love you_ and suddenly it feels as though the chains that bound them have been unlocked, and for once in too long of a time they can _breathe_.

* * *

_I love Cain and DG. I think it's the Han Solo/Princess Lei dynamic that sucks me in. Now, allow me to explain a few of these sentences that I'm afraid people won't understand because I'm an annoyingly vague write.  
_

_07: _The Labyrinth _reference. If you have don't know what it is, go out and buy it. No, don't rent it--_buy it. _It's that good._

_04: DG is talking about the tin suits. So. Yeah. Me and my vague-y-ness._

_26: The mandatory DG-just-got-turned-down sentence. Just so's ya know._

_39: Written with Glitch/DG/Cain in mind, but feel free to substitute whoever you want for Glitch._

_And that's that. Reviews are always loved and appreciated!_


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